The brains of children who have suffered from family violence are negatively impacted for the rest of their lives, according to a new study. The results of brain imaging found that the brains of those who suffered from child abuse will forever be “tuned” to look for possible sources of threat, akin to a soldier in combat.

“Enhanced reactivity to a biologically salient threat cue such as anger may represent an adaptive response for these children in the short term, helping keep them out of danger,” said researcher Eamon McCrory. “However, it may also constitute an underlying neurobiological risk factor increasing their vulnerability to later mental health problems and particularly anxiety.”

The study that was used detected the children’s brain responses to angry and sad faces; when shown angry faces, children with a history of abuse showed “heightened activity in the brain’s anterior insula and amygdala, regions involved in detecting threat and anticipating pain.”

“This underlines the importance of taking seriously the impact for a child of living in a family characterized by violence,” McCrory said. “Even if such a child is not showing overt signs of anxiety or depression, these experiences still appear to have a measurable effect at the neural level.”

A previous study revealed that child abuse is linked with chronic diseases such as osteoarthritis, chronic spinal pain and frequent or severe headache later in life.

Source: Cell Press

Heather Rudow is a staff writer for Counseling Today. Email her at hrudow@counseling.org.

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